


6. starshaping

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [126]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Fairy Tale Style, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 19:16:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8459833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: Once upon a time, long before you or I or your mother or your mother’s mother was born, night and day didn’t exist.





	

Once upon a time, long before you or I or your mother or your mother’s mother was born, night and day didn’t exist. There was only time – the sky was bright and also studded with glittering stars, frozen in that one perfect moment. Every sunrise and sunset and summer afternoon, all there. The people on the earth below were happy, and above them there was only the sky, and the sky was happy too. She had never known how to be anything else.

But the power-that-is-greater-than-the-sky said: Everything below you is chaos. Nobody knows when to sleep and when to wake and when to laugh and when to hide. What is the point of time without a sign?

And the sky said: I like it. I can always see the children this way, and I like them.

But the power-that-is-greater-than-the-sky said: Hm.

Time passed, and also: it didn’t, not really. The sky shifted from one bright color to another, and never ever went dark. The sky made stars for the children, and leaned in close to watch the things she was most interested in – fighting and drinking and hugging and laughing and singing. When she leaned close enough she peeled the edges of herself off, and around the edges there was only black.

And the power-that-is-greater-than-the-sky said: Hm.

And so it came to pass that when the sky was watching a mother wipe tears from her daughter’s face, the power-that-is-greater-than-the-sky grabbed her and ripped her in two. She screamed thunder and lightning and huge bursts of cloud, but it didn’t matter: when the power-that-is-greater-than-the-sky was done, she wasn’t herself anymore.

One part of her said: What happened? It hurts, I don’t like it.

Another part of her said: Why am I only half of myself? Where is the other part of me?

The power-that-is-greater-than-the-sky said nothing, and took the two parts, and pushed them so far apart that they ripped and tore and bled black. And then they were Night and Day.

Night said: It’s so dark.

She reached for Day but couldn’t reach her; her finger scrabbled around the edges of Day and all the stars came tumbling out of Day and into Night’s lap. Night held them close but they were not enough. They were only a pale part of what she’d used to have, and she knew it, but she ate them whole anyways and carved constellations into her skin to remind herself.

Day said: I’m so alone. I am missing myself, and I am missing my stars, and without these two things I have nothing.

She couldn’t stand being alone, and so she ran. The world looked up to the sky to see what they had always known, but there was nothing there; Day ran for the horizon, not looking back.

Night said: Wait.

Night said: They need you.

Night said: I need you.

So Night ran after her, on the heels of Day, and black filled the sky, and the constellations were in strange star-shapes that nobody knew. The two of them chased each other across the horizon but when Night got close enough to touch Day her fingers were too studded with stars and Day started bleeding. She bled across the whole sky, and we call it _sunrise_ now. Night recoiled, fell back, enough to give Day time to cross the horizon and slam into Night’s back. Night stumbled forward, bleeding, and we call that _sunset_.

Night was furious with Day, because Day had never hurt her before – how could she, when they were their own self, one whole thing? So Night ran after Day again, to hurt her, to show her that Night was hurt, to show her that they couldn’t go on like this.

And now they are still running. When Night catches Day she makes her bleed to show how much she missed her, and when Day catches Night she makes her bleed as payback. Day never stops running; she is scared, now, to look down. She doesn’t want to know how much she’s missed, how many children are grown, how many mothers are gone. And as long as she keeps running, Night will too. Following her forever and ever.

I would say they lived happily ever after, but. Does that seem quite right to you?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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